By Lynn Janes

On June 25, 2025, the board of regents held a virtual special meeting at Western New Mexico University. The board consisted of Steven Neville, chair, Joseph "Dean" Reed, John Wertheim and WNMU student Keana Huerta.

The board approved the agenda.

Presidents report

Jack Crocker, acting president, had asked Michael Acosta, chief information officer, to give the board a brief update on the cyber issue and recent progress on restoration and recovery.

Acosta said the wireless networks have been fully restored across campus. They had been utilizing the nursing lab to do rebuilds of desktops and thanked them for the use of that space. A handful of critical servers still need to be restored. People will have to redo their voice mail greeting. He went over several other things that had been restored and improved.

Neville thanked them for the hard work they had been doing to have the system back and running.

Crocker said summer sessions had started and had not had any obstacles. He felt the fall enrollment had been affected due to the impact of the network. The region has had some serious fire problems, but the university had stepped up to help the community. At this time the residence halls have 52 National Guardsmen, 10 Red Cross workers and 6 New Mexico State Police. One WNMU family that had to evacuate has also been staying in the residence halls. The Silver High School did not have any place for practice due to their field being used as a staging area, so WNMU gave them access to their fields and weight room for training.

Crocker thanked the hot shot teams and fire fighters for what they had been doing and commented it has been a major undertaking.

Neville said they appreciated the university stepping up to help with the fire. He had experienced a similar fire in Colorado 20 years ago and knew it could be scary and had been a humbling experience.

New business

Neville said they had hired a consultant and had been asked they provide them with qualified candidates and included any from New Mexico that would be available. Ultimately, they had looked at four individuals. The board wanted to move forward on the selection and start negotiations.

Wertheim said he and Neville had sat on the personnel committee after the board had assigned them the duty. He wanted to report to the public what that process had been. The consulting group hired had been Association of Governing Boards, they have a website the public can look at and they have been a very prominent organization. He read their mission statement. The AGB advances higher education as a public good by preparing college, university, and foundation governing boards to fulfill their fiduciary duties and exemplify the highest ideals of trusteeship.

They have two processes happening, one for the interim president and one for the permanent president. The interim president needs to be a different kind of person than the permanent one. The interim needs to be a bridging type who will be laying the foundation for success of the permanent president. Wertheim continued, that they had adopted a strict line that the interim president had to have experience being an interim if not at least a president of a university in the past.

Anthem, a separate consulting group will be helping with the permanent president search. The person for this job may be nontraditional or traditional.

Wertheim and Neville felt for the interim needed someone with very strong experience as a president of a university. He wanted the public to understand the two processes would be very different.

The permanent candidate search will have a selection committee that will include community members and will be very inclusive. Wertheim anticipated having town halls so it would be very open to the public.

The interim will be helping them lay the foundation for success for the permanent appointment. Wertheim made a motion to contact and negotiate a contract with Dr. Chris Maples as the interim president for Western New Mexico University.

Wertheim gave a little background on Maples and added all the candidates would have been good choices. Maples has a PhD in paleontology from Indiana University. Much of his background he might share with the students at WNMU. He started off in college but had not been succeeding. He left and joined the US Army and served honorably for several years. He returned to college and obtained his degree and ultimately earned a PhD in paleontology and became an academic. Wertheim said him being a veteran had been a big deal. He had been able to use the GI bill to go to school. Maples had recently been an interim president. Maples commented in the interview, "It is a different kind of gig." He had been at the Pacific Northwest College of Art from 2019-2020. He had also served as interim chancellor at Missouri University of Science and Technology and also been a full time president of Oregon Institute of Technology. Wertheim said, "I think he is a very impressive guy and most impressive he is very down to earth, very engaging, very nice guy and has a good sense of humor."

The board approved the authorization of the personnel committee to negotiate and execute a contract with Dr. Chris Maples as interim president of Western New Mexico University.

Neville agreed with what Wertheim had said about Maples. Very impressive with a lot of experience. He has served in a number of positions and being an interim there would be no time for on the job training. He also felt they had very qualified candidates to choose from. Reed had also been involved in the interviewing process.

No public comments currently.

No board closing comments currently.

Meeting adjourned.

[Editor's Note: Maples accepted the position and will begin on Aug. 1.]